The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1509-1558 [3 vols]

Overview

The achievement is notable indeed . These are good, solid, helpful works of learning; the production is excellent and the books almost too elegant for their purpose. THE SPECTATOR [Sir Geoffrey Elton]

Here is real treasure: a new and infinitely more comprehensive Dictionary of National Biography . not only comprehensive, it is splendidly detailed as well. All (upper class) Tudor life is here: the criss-cross channels of descent that operated like a complex lottery suddenly to shower wealth on obscure third cousins: the tendency of bright young men to marry rich old widows and so have no children (at least not born in wedlock); the ruthless pursuit of advancing in local politics that often made the early Tudor courtier JP the too-obvious heir of the fifteenth century bastard feudal retainer - only more dangerous because his lord was the King; and (refreshingly) the fondness of building and literature that we see as relaxations from politics but they understood as their continuation. HISTORY TODAY [David Starkey]